President James J. Duderstadt and head basketball coach Steve Fisher will be among those paying tribute to the U-M’s 400 custodians at a kick-off ceremony for Custodial Appreciation Week Aug. 30–Sept. 3.
Thirty custodians will receive perfect attendance awards and another 50 will receive customer service awards at the ceremony scheduled 2–4 p.m. Aug. 30 in Room 1800 of the Willard Henry Dow Laboratory.
Also scheduled to speak are James E. Christenson, director of Plant Operations; Nathan B. Norman, Building Services manager; and Rob Hill, custodian at the Modern Languages Building and member of the Custodial Appreciation Week Committee.
A more informal event will be held noon–5 p.m. Sept. 3 outside of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building. Festivities include a picnic lunch, raffle, karaoke music, tug-o-war, and organized softball, volleyball and card games.
Hill, who has been a custodian at the
U-M for three years, says Custodial Appreciation Week is designed to enhance staff members’ self esteem and to give custodians an opportunity to get acquainted with one another.
Norman says supervisors are planning other recognition events within their units during the week.
Custodial Appreciation Week “is very important because it offers some degree of recognition for those employees who have labored all year, performing tasks that sometimes do not receive the recognition that other tasks do,” Norman says.
The week is also an opportunity for Building Services customers to interact with custodians. Some buildings have luncheons or offer meeting space for the custodians’ recognition events, Norman notes.
“We appreciate the University’s efforts to recognize the custodians. From that recognition comes the inspiration to carry on the tasks they do,” Norman says.
